130i Coupe?

[Mr_Yogi]

Quick question, did BMW ever make a 130i Coupe (E82?)? And if not why?

[driver67]

Mr_Yogi said:

Quick question, did BMW ever make a 130i Coupe (E82?)? And if not why?

They made a 125i in the coupe which uses the same engine as the 130i, just detuned.

It can be remapped to just below 130i levels.

[smith94]

Wonder why they never did?

Surely would have been pretty popular and its not like they would have had to engineer anything new for it, just rummage around in the parts bin.

[Mr_Yogi]

driver67 said:

They made a 125i in the coupe which uses the same engine as the 130i, just detuned.

It can be remapped to just below 130i levels.

That's what prompted my question. There are quite a few 125i's for sale and I noticed these had a 3.0 engine I assumed there must be 130i's out there too. Especially as the 130i hatch was quite talked about and seemingly well liked.

[Mr_Yogi]

smith94 said:

Wonder why they never did?

Surely would have been pretty popular and its not like they would have had to engineer anything new for it, just rummage around in the parts bin.

Exactly my thoughs, although maybe there were worried it would poach sales from the 330i coupe?

[moffat]

Hatch had the 30i and Coupe had the 35i.

I am pretty sure they phased out the 30i engine in the Hatch as the Coupe came out.

In my opinion the N54 35i is so much better than the 30i engine.

[Mermaid]

130i Coupe?

Did anyone else have this image in mind (not withstanding it is the BMW forum)? or just me...

[roofer]

Not just you, I thought of them as I had one back in the day, until I jumped in it to eagerly, and my feet touched the Tarmac.

[Mermaid]

roofer said:

Not just you, I thought of them as I had one back in the day, until I jumped in it to eagerly, and my feet touched the Tarmac.

"air-con" was standard

[driver67]

moffat said:

Hatch had the 30i and Coupe had the 35i.

I am pretty sure they phased out the 30i engine in the Hatch as the Coupe came out.

In my opinion the N54 35i is so much better than the 30i engine.

Totally different beasts. Preference really dictates :- N/A or Turbo

N/A for the win N52B30 won a Wards best engine award, one of BMW's last N/A straight sixes.

[aeropilot]

moffat said:

I am pretty sure they phased out the 30i engine in the Hatch as the Coupe came out.

Coupe came out in late 2007, and the 130i continued until the summer of 2009 before being dropped for the UK market (remained in production for other markets until the demise of the E81/E87 hatch in 2011)

[sixpistons]

They fitted the 3.0 N52 in the 125i coupe but pegged it back to about 220bhp rather than the 265bhp of the 130i to give more space between it and the 135i. Mechanically the european spec 125i and 130i engines are identical - only software differences. I believe in the USA the 128i used a different inlet manifold.

[Mr Tidy]

Mermaid said:

130i Coupe?

Did anyone else have this image in mind (not withstanding it is the BMW forum)? or just me...

You are not alone, I had a Fiat 125 followed by a 132 so had the same thought - that Fiat is so much better looking than any e87!

But anyway it does seem strange that the straight6 options are a mish-mash of 130i for the hatch, 125i (although still 3.0 litre) for the coupe and 3 litre turbo for the 135iM.
Shame buyers could not choose the combination they wanted.

[moffat]

driver67 said:

Totally different beasts. Preference really dictates :- N/A or Turbo

N/A for the win N52B30 won a Wards best engine award, one of BMW's last N/A straight sixes.

You realise the N54 won Engine of the Year 5 years in a row?;)

[cerb4.5lee]

moffat said:

driver67 said:

Totally different beasts. Preference really dictates :- N/A or Turbo

N/A for the win N52B30 won a Wards best engine award, one of BMW's last N/A straight sixes.

You realise the N54 won Engine of the Year 5 years in a row?;)

Both great engines I reckon but I am always hankering after more power in my 330i so the 335i would get my vote purely on its potential to tune it, the N52 is still sweet though.

[driver67]

moffat said:

You realise the N54 won Engine of the Year 5 years in a row?;)

I do now

[cerb4.5lee]

driver67 said:

moffat said:

You realise the N54 won Engine of the Year 5 years in a row?;)

I do now

Both the S54/S65 won many awards as well...yet neither of them blew me away that much and I still love the poor relative N52 in many ways... so for me don't always believe the hype and go for the engine that you like the most.

[s m]

The BMW Performance Exhaust sounds pretty good on these

http://youtu.be/rHuUFeG_HBY

I'm waiting for them to drop in price a bit now the 2-series is out

[bodhi]

Must admit I love my 125i Coupé - haven't had the remap done yet, but it has plenty of poke as standard, and only loses out to the 130i when you are really going for it. I feel like it's the last of the line of what I would consider a true BMW - small, rear wheel drive, manual box, NA Straight 6, so hopefully values will firm up in future, like they have for the 130i.

The N52 really is a gem of an engine though, flexible, sweet sounding, burbles fantastically in traffic then howls all the way to 7000 rpm. Getting a solid 30 to the gallon out of it as well.

[aeropilot]

bodhi said:

The N52 really is a gem of an engine though, flexible, sweet sounding, burbles fantastically in traffic then howls all the way to 7000 rpm. Getting a solid 30 to the gallon out of it as well.

And the magnessium alloy bloacked N52 weighs feck all as well (40+kg's less than the N54/N55 in the 135i) which combined with the stiffer coupe shell compared to the hatch 130i makes for a good B-road/track toy once the chassis has been tweeked a little.